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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/25793080">The Meaning of Life</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken'>thedevilchicken</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Holiday (1938)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Getting Together, Multi, Post-Canon</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-05 09:21:04</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Mature</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,344</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/25793080</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thedevilchicken/pseuds/thedevilchicken</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Turns out Johnny didn't need to go so far away to figure out what he wanted in life.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Johnny Case/Linda Seton/Ned Seton</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>9</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Limited Theatrical Release 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>The Meaning of Life</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/merle_p/gifts">merle_p</a>.</li>



    </ul></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>When Linda said they had to go back for Ned, Johnny couldn't say he disagreed.</p><p>The Seton house was a stuffy old museum more than a home, Johnny thought, except maybe for the playroom where they'd all spent that New Year's Eve, and Johnny wouldn't have wished the place on his worst enemy. Not that he really had enemies, except maybe Linda's father, who wouldn't stop glowering every time their paths crossed. After all, it wasn't the done thing for a Seton girl to run away with a nobody son of a grocer from Baltimore, not even the black sheep of the family. </p><p>Linda, as it happened, didn't mind a jot being the black sheep. She quite liked it, actually, because maybe her father kicked up a stink when she left but nobody else seemed even a bit surprised. And when they went back for Ned...well, popular opinion was that Johnny Case had already hoodwinked one susceptible Seton, so he guessed it didn't matter if he took off with another. To his surprise, he kinda liked the idea.</p><p>"Look, you can't stay here," Linda said. "Don't you want to be happy? We're so happy, Neddie, and you could be happy with us." </p><p>She was sitting in the playroom, perched on the edge of the couch with Ned's hands in hers. Ned looked at her. Ned looked at Johnny. And there was this expression on his face, real easy to read, like what he wanted was permission, or what he wanted was...well, the kind of thing Johnny's not sure if words can give you. Johnny sure couldn't have.</p><p>So, Johnny smiled. Johnny nodded. Johnny sat himself down right there to him and gave Ned's shoulder a reassuring squeeze. Then they both helped him pack his bags and they left the house together, arm in arm. Edward Seton ranted and raved, and Ned kept his head down as they swept him out into a cab but when they got in, Johnny squeezed Ned's knee while Linda squeezed his hand and, for a second, he looked hopeful.</p><p>The first week was hard. Ned fretted something awful - what if he'd done the wrong thing? - and even Linda couldn't find a way to console him. He drank too much, slumped over the kitchen table with a glass swaying in his hand on its way to his mouth; sometimes he and Linda passed the bottle back and forth, not that Linda drank as much as she just peered woefully at the disappearing scotch, and Johnny joined them there in solidarity. Even visiting with Nick and Susan, home for a week or two from France, didn't seem to help any. </p><p>On the eighth day after Ned left the Seton house, and left the Seton business, Johnny talked with Linda. Then, they took Ned out to dinner. And then, they took him out to a club. They had a bit too much to drink and danced together, all three of them, laughing; Johnny understood when Linda took Ned's hand and twirled because she'd made it clear they were devoted to each other. When Johnny did the same, Ned's hand in his, Ned's eyes went wide but he played along. Johnny grinned. Linda beamed. Ned clearly didn't understand. </p><p>Back in the apartment - not Park Avenue but honestly not far away, Johnny turned on the lights and he took off his hat and he dropped his coat on the floor when he aimed for the hat stand. Linda laughed, the carefree sound that Johnny loved, and she stumbled straight into Johnny's arms. He kissed her, soundly, on the mouth, and when Ned stuttered about how he should go to bed and get out of their hair, Johnny turned and caught his arm. </p><p>"You could stand to get into our hair a good deal more, you know," he told him. "If you don't think that sounds too scandalous." </p><p>Ned looked at Linda; she tossed her hair and smiled that winning smile of hers that said the whole darn thing was her idea. Ned looked at Johnny; Johnny shrugged and grinned. Then each of them held out a hand and Ned, a little drunk and maybe just a little dazzled, joined them in their room. </p><p>The first night, they didn't do much more than sleep. They were all the worse for wear for drink, though it was unusual for Linda; Ned fell over taking off his shoes and when Linda tried to catch him she just went over, too, and laughed until Johnny shrugged and flip-flopped as he joined them on the floor. They sat back against the foot of the bed on the big, thick rug with their shoes off and their legs stretched out, Linda's head on Johnny's shoulder and Linda's fingers laced with Ned's. He knew she'd nodded off when her toes stopped wiggling like she had a tune stuck in her head, then he scooped her up and plopped her down onto the bed and when Ned made to leave, Johnny stopped him; he pointed at the other side and then stripped off his shirt and they fell asleep like that, still halfway dressed and with the lights on. </p><p>In the morning, though, when Johnny woke up with his slacks still on and his socks worked halfway off, Ned was already awake. Ned looked at him, over Linda as she slept, and they left her there just for a little while. They made coffee with just a hair of the dog in it out in the kitchen and sat together at the kitchen table, and when Ned said, "Johnny, will you tell me what's going on here?" Johnny reached out one hand and put it over Ned's. Ned's eyes went wide again, like some two-bit comedy, but he didn't move away.</p><p>When Linda wandered in, in her nightdress instead of just last night's dress and somehow making yawning looking graceful, Johnny was kissing Ned pushed against the kitchen counter. </p><p>"Well, it's about time," she said, and leaned up to kiss each of them on the cheek in turn. Then she stole Johnny's coffee, and then she stole Ned's, and neither of them minded, not one little bit. Johnny went out pretty soon after that - he'd written a book while they were away and Nick and Susan had a publisher friend they wanted him to meet while they were there to meet him with him. When he came back, he had good news; they really had to celebrate. </p><p>When they got back in that night, they weren't nearly half so blotto. Johnny didn't drop his coat and Ned didn't trip while he was taking off his shoes. They didn't wind up half-clothed on the bedroom floor, telling stories about their hopes and dreams - they wound up by the bed with the comforter thrown back, and Ned's nervous fingers unbuttoning the front of Johnny's shirt. Johnny took his hands in his, smiled, kissed both his palms, and Linda's arms snaked around his waist, to finish off the job then pull Ned closer. She laughed. Ned smiled. He actually looked kinda happy. And then when Johnny's hand found its way into his pants, his eyes went wide again - turned out Johnny liked making him look like that, so he didn't stop, not until an even better look had settled in instead.</p><p>Ned got a job playing piano for a music hall not too long after that and Linda, after a couple of months, decided she was going to be a lawyer. She applied to school and got a place and studied at the kitchen table while Johnny wrote his second book, and Ned hummed the next part of his concerto while he cooked. Turned out he had a flair for that he'd've never known he had back on Fifth Avenue.</p><p>Each night, the three of them share a bed. Each morning, the three of them wake up together. </p><p>The Seton family has taught Johnny a whole lot about where his place in life is. And it's right there with the two of them.</p>
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